Nané Posted November 8, 2004 Report Share Posted November 8, 2004 I'm sure some of you have read the "Alchemist" or at least know someone who has. But Coelho has published numerous other books which have been a source of inspiration for me. And not only ... One Friday evening as I got home and opened my mail-box I found a little packet. It was from one of my dearest friends who lives in Sacramento (MosJan, you can probably guess who). I tore off the brown paper as I walked up to my apartment, opened the door while reading the cover, collapsed on the couch and decided to read the abstract on the back and put it aside. I looked at the watch. I had too meet some friends at a restaurant later that day. "OK. Just the first chapter" I told myself. In short, I read the whole book without being able to pull away. I was reading while getting dressed, while being driven to the restaurant by a friend, while eating dinner, then drinking coffee. I read the last words of the last chapter and looked up, then around. The world was a different place and has been since that moment forward. After reading "Veronika Decides to Die" (which remains my favorite) I read several of his books and thanked my friend for introducing me to the world of Coelho. For me, Coehlo has not been a "life manual" ... he has simply opened up my (internal) eyes ... Please visit his site and I hope you enjoy reading Coelho as much as I have. Paulo Coelho's Official Site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted November 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 MAKTUB 1. "Maktub" means "It is written." The Arabs feel that "It is written" is not really a good translation, because, although everything is already written, God is compassionate, and wrote it all down just to help us. The wanderer is in New York. He has overslept an appointment, and when he leaves his hotel, he finds that his car has been towed by the police. He arrives late for his appointment, the luncheon lasts longer than necessary, and he is thinking about the fine he will have to pay. It will cost a fortune. Suddenly, he remembers the dollar bill he found in the street the day before. He sees some kind of weird relationship between the dollar bill and what happened to him that morning. "Who knows, perhaps I found that money before the person who was supposed to find it had the chance? Maybe I removed that dollar bill from the path of someone who really needed it. Who knows but what I interfered with what was written?" He feels the need to rid himself of the dollar bill, and at that moment sees a beggar sitting on the sidewalk. He quickly hands him the bill, and feels that he has restored a kind of equilibrium to things. "Just a minute," says the beggar. "I'm not looking for a handout. I'm a poet, and I want to read you a poem in return." "Well, make it a short one, because I'm in a hurry," says the wanderer. The beggar says, "If you are still living, it's because you have not yet arrived at the place you should be." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armen Posted November 23, 2004 Report Share Posted November 23, 2004 That's exactly what happened with me when I read the "Alchemist". Couldn't stop when started to read... Great book! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted November 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 That's exactly what happened with me when I read the "Alchemist". Couldn't stop when started to read... Great book! style_images/master/snapback.png Armen, have you read any of his other works? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armen Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 No only "Alchemist". What is "Veronika Decides to Die" about? Sulamik, have you read Suskind's "Parfume"? If you like Coelho you're going to read "Parfume" in just the same manner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted November 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 No only "Alchemist". What is "Veronika Decides to Die" about? Sulamik, have you read Suskind's "Parfume"? If you like Coelho you're going to read "Parfume" in just the same manner. style_images/master/snapback.png Armen, here's the extract. Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for. She goes to popular night spots, she meets and dates attractive young men and yet she's not happy. Something is lacking in her life. That's why, in the morning of 11th November 1997, Veronika Decides to Die. After taking an overdose, Veronika is told she has only a few days to live. This story follows Veronika through these intense days as to her surprise, she finds herself drawn into the enclosed world of the local hospital she is staying in. In this heightened state she discovers things she has never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love - even sexual awakening. Her experiences lead her gradually to realise that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying. Paulo Coelho's new book is about those who do not fit into patterns considered normal by society. It is about madness and the need to find an alternative way of living for people who frequently have to face other people's prejudices because they think in a different way. ------------------------------------------------------------------- There's a wonderful piece in the book where one of the characters (a lawyer) puts God on trial for placing the tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden instead of outside the walls of paradise. It's just brilliant. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Quotes from the book: When everyone dreams, but only a few realize their dreams, that makes cowards of us all. We're allowed to make a lot of mistakes in our lives, except the mistake that destroys us. Everyone is indeed crazy, but crazier are the ones who don't know they're crazy. They just keep repeating what others tell them. Certain people, in their eagerness to construct a world no external threat can penetrate, build exaggeratedly high defenses against the outside world, against new people, new places, different experiences, and leave their inner world stripped bare. It is there that bitterness begins its irrevocable work ... In order to avoid external attack, they also deliberately limit internal growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted November 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 Sulamik, have you read Suskind's "Parfume"? If you like Coelho you're going to read "Parfume" in just the same manner. style_images/master/snapback.png No, I have not. But I just put it on my list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted November 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 (edited) MAKTUB 2. The German philosopher, F. Nietzsche, once said: "It's not worthwhile to spend time discussing everything; it is a part of the human condition to err from time to time." The master says: "There are people who insist that they be right about even minor details. They often do not permit themselves to make a mistake. What they accomplish with that attitude is a fear of moving ahead. Fear of making a mistake is the door that locks us into the castle of mediocrity. If we are able to overcome that fear, we have taken an important step in the direction of our freedom." Edited November 24, 2004 by Sulamita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted November 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 (edited) MAKTUB 3. A Buddhist master was traveling on foot with his disciples, when he noted that they were discussing among themselves who was the best. "I have practiced meditation for fifteen years," said one. "I have been charitable ever since I left my parents' home," said another. "I have always followed the precepts of Buddha," said a third. At noon, they stopped under an apple tree to rest. The branches of the tree were loaded down with fruit, to the point that its branches reached to the ground. "When a tree is laden with fruit, its branches bend to touch the ground. The truly wise is he who is humble. When a tree bears no fruit, its branches are arrogant and haughty. The foolish man always believes that he is better than others." Edited November 24, 2004 by Sulamita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armen Posted November 24, 2004 Report Share Posted November 24, 2004 "Veronika ..." seems to be something I should read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted January 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 (edited) It was a shame that Allah, Jehovah, God – it didn’t matter what name you gave him – did not live in the world today, because if he did, we would still be in paradise, while he would be mired with appeals, requests, demands, injunctions, preliminary verdicts, and would have to justify to innumerable tribunals his decision to expel Adam and Eve from paradise for breaking an arbitrary rule with no foundation in law: Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat. If he had not wanted that to happen, why did he put the tree in the middle of the garden and not outside the walls of paradise? If she were called upon to defend the couple, Mari would undoubtedly accuse God of administrative negligence, because, in addition to planting the tree in the wrong place, he had failed to surround it with warnings and barriers, had failed to adopt even minimal security arrangements, and had thus exposed everyone to danger. Mari could also accuse him of inducement to criminal activity, for ha had pointed out to Adam and Eve the exact place where the tree was to be found. If he had said nothing, generation upon generation would have passed on this earth without anyone taking the slightest interest in the forbidden fruit, since the tree was presumably in the forest full of similar trees, and therefore of no particular value. But God had proceeded quite differently. He had devised a rule and then found a way of persuading someone to break it, merely in order to invent punishment. He knew that Adam and Eve would become bored with perfection and would, sooner or later, test his patience. He set a trap, perhaps because he, Almighty God, was also bored with everything going to smoothly: If Eve had not eaten the apple, nothing of any interest would have happened in the last few billion years. When the law was broken, God – the omnipotent judge – even pretended to pursue them, as if he did not already know every possible hiding place. With the angels looking on, amused by the game (life must have been very dreary for them since Lucifer left heaven), he began to walk about the garden. Mari thought what a wonderful scene in a suspense movie that episode from the Bible would make: God’s footsteps, the couple exchanging frightened glances, the feet suddenly stopping in their hiding place. “Where art thou?” asked God. “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself,” Adam replied, without knowing that my making this statement, he had confessed himself to guilty of a crime. So, by means of a simple trick, pretending not to know where Adam was or why he had run away, God got what he wanted. Even so, in order to leave no doubts among the audience of angles who were intently watching the episode, he decided to go further. “Why told thee that thou was naked?” said God, knowing that this questions could have only one possible response: “Because I ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” With this question, God demonstrated to his angels that he was a just God, and that his condemnation of the couple was based on solid evidence. From then on, it wasn’t a matter of whether it was the woman’s fault or of their asking for forgiveness: God needed an example, so that no other being, earthly or heavenly, would ever again dare to go against his decisions. God expelled the couple, and their children paid for the crime too (as still happens with the children of criminals) and thus the judiciary system was invented: the law, the transgression of law (no matter how illogical or absurd), judgment (in which the more experienced triumphs over the ingenuous), and punishment. Since all of humanity was condemned with no right to appeal, humankind decided to create a defense mechanism against the eventuality of God deciding to wield his arbitrary power again. However, millennia of study resulted in so many legal measures that, ultimately, we went too far, and justice became a tangle of clauses, jurisprudence, and contradictory texts that no one could quite understand. So much so that, when God had a change of heart and sent his Son to save the world, what happened? He fell into the hands of the very justice he had invented. The tangle of laws created such a confusion that the Son ended up nailed to a cross. It was no simple trial; ha was passed from Ananias to Caiphas, from the priest to Pilate, who alleged that there were insufficient laws in the Roman code. From Pilate to Herod, who, in turn, alleged that the Jewish code did not permit the death sentence. From Herod back to Pilate again, who, looking for a way out, offered the people a juridical deal: He had the Son beaten and then displayed to the people with his wounds, but it didn’t work. Like prosecutors nowadays Pilate decided to save himself at the expense of the condemned man: he offered to exchange Jesus for Barabas, knowing that, by then, justice had become a grand spectacle requiring a denouement: the death of the prisoner. Finally Pilate used the article of law that gave the judge, and not the person being judged, the benefit of the doubt. He washed his hands, which means: “I’m not quite sure either way.” It was just another ruse to preserve the Roman judicial system without injuring relations with local magistrates, and even transferring the weight of the decision onto the people, just in case the sentence should cause any problems, and some inspector from the imperial capital come to see for himself what was going on. from Veronika Decides To Die Edited January 3, 2005 by Sulamita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armen Posted January 3, 2005 Report Share Posted January 3, 2005 If Eve had not eaten the apple, nothing of any interest would have happened in the last few billion years. from Veronika Decides To Die style_images/master/snapback.png This was great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nané Posted January 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2005 (edited) "By the river Piedra I sat down and wept. There is a legend that everything that falls into the waters of this river - leaves, insects, the feathers of birds - is transformed into the rocks that make the riverbed. If only I could tear out my heart and hurl it into the current, then my pain and longing would be over, and I could finally forget." "Perhaps love makes us old before our time - or young if youth has passed." "We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen. Every day, God gives us the sun - and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist - that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow." "I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn't. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything." "No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone's eyes. And any woman with the least bit of sensitivity can read the eyes of a man in love." "Sometimes an uncontrollable feeling of sadness grips us. We recognize that the magic moment of the day has passed and that we've done nothing about it. Life beings to conceal its magic and its art. We have to listen to the child we once were, the child who still exists inside us. That child understands magic moments. We can stifle its cries, but we cannot silence its voice. The child we once were is still there ... If we are not reborn - if we cannot learn to look at life with the innocence and the enthusiasm of childhood - it makes no sense to go on living." "There are many ways to commit suicide. Those who try to kill the body violate God's law. Those who try to kill the soul also violate God's law, even though this crime is less visible to others." "Remember that human wisdom is madness in the eyes of God." "The wise are wise only because they love. And the foolish are foolish only because they think they can understand love." "But love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure, and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current. For when those walls come down, then love takes over, and it no longer matters what is possible or impossible; it doesn't even matter whether we can keep the loved one at our side. To love is to lose control." "Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows." "In fairy tales, the princesses kiss the frogs, and the frogs become princes. In real life the princesses kiss princes, and the princes become frogs." "The gods throw the dice, and they don't ask whether we want to be in the game or not... The gods throw the dice, freeing love from its cage. And love can create or destroy - depending on the direction of the wind when it is set free." " ... love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness. The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us." "Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering." “Lovers need to know how to lose themselves and then how to find themselves again.” from By The River Piedra, I Sat Down & Wept Edited January 21, 2005 by Sulamita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Em Posted March 31, 2008 Report Share Posted March 31, 2008 For a long time after I discovered Coelho’s writing, I did not share him with anyone I knew; did not recommend his works. I thought doing so would diminish the magic his words provided me with. So I kept him to myself from a small circle of people in my world. My favorite work of his is By the River Piedra..call me a Romantic. I have read almost all of his novels. His writing cleanses and refills my soul with goodness. His words are like magic. The following is an excerpt from Eleven Minutes (his most risqué work). “I’ve met a man and fallen in love with him. I allowed myself myself to fall in love for a simple reason: I’m not expecting anything to come of it. I know that in three months’ time, I will be far away and he’ll be just a memory, but I couldn’t stand living without love any longer; I had reached my limit. I’m writing a story for Ralf Hart- that’s his name. I’m not sure he will come back to the club where I work, but, for the first time in my life, that doesn’t matter. It’s enough just to love him, to be with him in my thoughts and to color this lovely city with his steps, his words, his love. When I leave this country, it will have a face and a name and the memory of a fireplace. Everything else I experienced here, all the difficulties I had to overcome, will be nothing compared to that memory. I would like to do for him what he did for me. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I realize that I didn’t go into that café by chance; really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other. Generally speaking, these meetings occur when we reach a limit, when we need to die and be reborn emotionally. These meeting are waiting for us, but more often than not, we avoid them happening. If we are desperate, though, if we have nothing to lose, or if we are full of enthusiasm for life, then the unknown reveals itself and our universe changes direction. Everyone knows how to love, because we are all born with that gift. Some people have a natural talent for it, but most of us have to re-learn, to remember how to love, and everyone, without exception, needs to burn on the bonfire of past emotions, to relive certain joys and griefs, certain ups and downs, until they can see the connecting thread that exists behind each new encounter; because there is a connecting thread. And then, our bodies learn to speak the language of the soul……” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Em Posted March 31, 2008 Report Share Posted March 31, 2008 (edited) from Eleven Minutes: "If I were to tell someone about my life today, I could do it in a way that would make them think me a brave, happy independent woman. RUBBISH: I am not even allowed to mention the only word that is more important to me than the eleven minutes—love. All my life, I thought of love as some kind of voluntary enslavement. Well that’s a lie: freedom can only come when love is present. The person who gives his or herself wholly, the person who feels freest, is the person who loves most wholeheartedly. And the person who loves wholeheartedly feels free. That is why, regardless of what I might experience, do or learn, nothing makes sense. I hope this time passes quickly, so that I can resume my search for myself- in the form of a man who understands me and does not make me suffer. But what am I saying? In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each of us responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel. It hurt when I lost each of the various men I fell in love with. Now, though, I am convinced that no one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.” Edited March 31, 2008 by Em124 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ani Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 (edited) So far the best for me is "The witch of Portobello" -No one places her dreams in the hands of those who might destroy them. No one, that is, but..." -Women always identify with one of four classic archetypes: The Virgin is the one whose search springs from her complete independence, and everything she learns is the fruit of her ability to face challenges alone. The Martyr finds her way to self-knowledge through pain, surrender, and suffering. The Saint finds her true reason for living in unconditional love and in her ability to give without asking anything in return. Finally, the Witch justifies her existence by going in search of complete and limitless pleasure." -I've noticed that loneliness gets stronger when we try to face it down but gets weaker when we simply ignore it. -…each of us contains our ancestors and all the generations to come. When we free ourselves, we are freeing all humanity. -We all work for some reason: to feed our children, to earn money to support ourselves, to justify our life, to get a little bit of power. However, there are always tedious stages in that process, and the secret lies in transforming those stages into an encounter with ourselves or with something higher. -We were born and brought up with the maxim that “time is money.” We know exactly what money is, but what does the word “time” mean? The day is made up of twenty-fours and an infinite number of moments. We need to be aware of each of those moments and to make the most of them regardless of whether we're busy doing something or merely contemplating life. If we slow down, everything lasts much longer… but why not use that time to think about pleasant things and to feel glad simply to be alive? -We all have an unknown ability, which will probably remain unknown forever. And yet that ability can become our ally…. Reality is nothing but a series of electrical stimuli to the brain. -What is a teacher?… It isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows. -… in order to forget the rules, you must know them and respect them. -If all the words were joined together, they wouldn't make sense, or, at the very least, they'd be extremely hard to decipher. The spaces are crucial. -People create a reality and then become the victims of that reality. Athena rebelled against that—and paid a high price." -When I die, bury me standing, because I've spent all of my life on my knees. Edited April 19, 2008 by MyExiledSoul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Em Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 My fave line from same: "The romanticism of youth demands that we always take very radical stances." (Sounds all too familiar, no?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ani Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Coelho's visit to Armenia http://anovelinmyheart.blogspot.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ani Posted May 11, 2008 Report Share Posted May 11, 2008 From "The Zahir" (2006) (Zahir, in Arabic, means visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed) "The Zahir was a fixation on everything that had been passed from generation to generation; it left no question unanswered; it took up all the space; it never allowed us even to consider the possibility that things could change. The all-powerful Zahir seemed to be born with every human being and to gain full strength in childhood, imposing rules that would thereafter always be respected: People who are different are dangerous; they belong to another tribe; they want our lands and our women. We must marry, have children, reproduce the species. Love is only a small thing, enough for one person, and any suggestion that the heart might be larger than this is considered perverse. When we marry, we are authorized to take possession of the other person, body and soul. We must do jobs we detest because we are part of an organized society, and if everyone did what they wanted to do, the world would come to a standstill. We must buy jewelry; it identifies us with our tribe, just as body piercing identifies those of a different tribe. We must be amusing at all times and sneer at those who express their real feelings; it's dangerous for a tribe to allow its members to show their feelings. We must at all costs avoid saying no because people prefer those who always say yes, and this allows us to survive in hostile territory. What other people think is more important than what we feel. Never make a fuss-it might attract the attention of an enemy tribe. If you behave differently, you will be expelled from the tribe because you could infect others and destroy something that was extremely difficult to organize in the first place. We must always consider the look of our new cave, and if we don't have a clear idea of our own, then we must call in a decorator who will do his best to show others what good taste we have. We must eat three meals a day, even if we're not hungry, and when we fail to fit the current ideal of beauty we must fast, even if we're starving. We must dress according to the dictates of fashion, make love whether we feel like it or not, kill in the name of our country, wish time away so that retirement comes more quickly, elect politicians, complain about the cost of living, change our hairstyle, criticize anyone who is different, go to a religious service on Sunday, Saturday, or Friday, depending on our religion, and there beg forgiveness for our sins and puff ourselves up with pride because we know the truth and despise the other tribe, who worships a false god. Our children must follow in our footsteps; after all, we are older and know about the world. We must have a university degree even if we never get a job in the area of knowledge we were forced to study. We must study things that we will never use, but which someone told us were important to know: algebra, trigonometry, the code of Hammurabi. We must never make our parents sad, even if this means giving up everything that makes us happy. We must play music quietly, talk quietly, weep in private, because I am the all-powerful Zahir, who lays down the rules and determines the distance between railway tracks, the meaning of success, the best way to love, the importance of rewards." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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